Another reason why we needed to implement incoming blacklist filters on our servers was because of AOL. But we hated to tell those of you about this that didn't like the filters, because at the time of discussion there was enough confusion.
Plus you hated that we had good reasons.
Here's the deal-
We get AOL feedback loops for our IP addresses, a.k.a emails copied to us that are reported as spam from AOL users. Now, these emails we get are supposed to be copies of spam from OUR servers. But here is what happens:
Many of our customers forward some of their email accounts with us to their AOL email accounts. So this means when they receive spam and click the AOL "This is spam!" button, it looks like to AOL that the spam came from us, since we are a middle man in delivery.
When we had the filters in place on the servers, I hardly got any feedback loop alerts. Any that I received were real spam issues due to outdated scripts and other issues on customer websites. Fixed in a flash and easily, too. I didn't have to weed through false alerts due to our customers' mail forwards (and not just our customers, customers of resellers, basically anyone with an account on a Surpass server). I would say 98% of the feedback emails we get are due to this problem. I get 1 email every 2-3 minutes, really. And none of them are of any use to us.
This is a definite flaw in the AOL spam reporting system. I was on and off the phone today with AOL and they basically couldn't do anything for us during the 4 times I was disconnected and the 6 people I talked to. It is very frustrating. If they keep removing the IPs that get placed on their blacklist, they just get placed back again by their systems. They said all we can do is implement filters or not allow forwards.
So let me phrase that again... and add the other option we have already been telling our customers:
To resolve the problem with AOL blacklisting:
a) Either we can place the blacklist filtering on our servers
b) Not allow our customers to have email forwarding accounts
c) or just tell everyone to use their ISP's outgoing mailserver to send email to AOL customers if they are faced with a bounce
I would say that about 30 of our servers right now are blacklisted by AOL and the issue because of the forwarding is the only reason. This is why many hosting companies do implement certain spam filters on their incoming mail, it wasn't just us that was tempted to do so. I am faced with a pretty big dilemma here with this spam issue regarding AOL at least. It's not easy.
These emails that come in to our servers would be completely avoided if we did use the filters, as I said before. I wasn't receiving anything before, and these are the reasons:
Contains an URL listed in the SBL blocklist
[URIs: lqwegqg.com]
3.2 URIBL_OB_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the OB SURBL blocklist
[URIs: chromite8oilcloth.com]
1.2 RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET RBL: Received via a relay in bl.spamcop.net
[Blocked - see <http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?64.12.138.1>]
1.0 URIBL_SBL Contains an URL listed in the SBL blocklist
[URIs: qqeenn.com]
3.2 URIBL_OB_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the OB SURBL blocklist
[URIs: lewdhj.com]
1.0 URIBL_SBL Contains an URL listed in the SBL blocklist
[URIs: lfsrtsve.com]
4.3 URIBL_SC_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the SC SURBL blocklist
[URIs: jmlfehdhkf.info]
3.2 URIBL_OB_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the OB SURBL blocklist
[URIs: ekbeehjkda.info elkmlifebd.info]
1.5 URIBL_WS_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the WS SURBL blocklist
[URIs: hydrocodine.net]
I could go on and on. Each email that could have been blocked from our server and blocked from being forwarded.. and then reported against us for no reason.
I am not saying that we are going to put the filters back. I just want to explain the situation. We try our best, but this certain issue is just very hard to control and make everyone happy at the same time.